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Unbelievable!!!

Musiclover | Arizona | 01/13/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As anyone who has heard them knows, these guys are as good as it gets. When Professor Greenberg recommended this set in his The Teaching Company course, "The String Quartets of Beethoven" (also outstanding by the way), I purchased them right away and expected great things. Somehow, they are beyond even those expectations. To start with, they use a quartet of extraordinary instruments on this particular set, the "Ellen M. Egger Quartet of Instruments" crafted by Francis Kuttner. I'm not kidding you when I say that just listening to the sound of these instruments is worth the price of admission alone. They sound that good. There's a small booklet included in the set that describes and explains them so I won't go into that here. The Alexander String Quartet does not own these instruments by the way, they're part of a "trust" of some kind and are loaned out for various purposes, this time for this recording. And, how great they sound is perfectly obvious because the quality of sound in this series of recordings is likewise fabulous - FABULOUS!! I would describe it as "nearly realistic". I don't say that lightly, I freely admit that I am a complete, total sound snob with a ridiculously expensive sound system, the components of which were slowly, painfully selected over many many years solely for the purpose of listening to just this kind of music. The quality of the sound of these recordings is unusual. Now, if the performances were merely good, that alone would be more than enough justification to buy these even if you already have several sets of Beethoven Quartets. But the playing is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!!! I can not imagine anyone who cares about this music not falling in love with these performances. They have that "inevitable" quality that great performances have. Everything fits together perfectly and effortlessly. Everything works; makes sense; is compelling, compelled-by-the-music compelling. The intonation is flawless. The dynamics are breathtaking (and correct based on following along in the score - don't laugh, its far from always the case!). And, best of all, one has that experience of insight that happens with the finest performances. One hears things, or perhaps recognizes or understands things, never heard before. I guess what's going on is something like this: great music is, of course, always something much greater than the sum of its parts. Everything going on works together resulting in some kind of greater organic whole. When the music is this great, the better it's performed, the more music emerges. That in itself is obvious but my point is, even after you're hearing everything being played, there can be even more music if its played still better. That might be a defining characteristic of classical music (jazz too). A good example of this is Artur Schnabel or Richard Goode playing Beethoven and Schubert. Maybe that can go on forever in the case of Beethoven's String Quartets I don't know but in any case, these guys get way WAY up there. So between the rare combination of great performances and sound I can honestly say that out of many thousands of classical recordings, these are already among a small set of my very favorites. If you're looking for a set of Beethoven String Quartets, this is it. Even if you're not, buy them anyway because you will be delighted with them. They are unbelievable."

Ah, the bliss!!!

Daniel W. Fowler | Austin TX | 06/01/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've been listening to this set for about a week now, alternating with selected excerpts from sets performed by the Alban Berg Quartett, the Emerson String Quartet, the Takacs Quartet, and the Vegh Quartet (mono). These sets have risen to the top of my preferred performances of these works for various reasons. Now, I'm happy to add, this new set of performances by the Alexander String Quartet proudly joins their ranks (the earlier Alexander set, while good, never quite achieved the same level of performance to my ears). The instruments produce a gorgeous tone, exquisitely captured by the recording. And what delightful interpretations, with dancelike melodies interspersed with mournful, haunting passages. I began in the middle with the op. 59 performances and found them fluid, forceful, sprightly, and lyrical as appropriate. Then I moved to the op. 18 selections and then to the latter quartets. Velvet tones brought out hushed, lyrical movements. Fleet, dancing rhythms were very accurate. Darker tones brought out the edgy quality that is sometimes lacking in more sedate renditions. I "connected" with all the interpretations, which captured the various moods very well. This is very difficult for such a large body of diverse music, and is the main reason I place this new set alongside the few I mentioned at the beginning of the review. All of these sets provide different but convincing interpretations from the early works to the last one. I recommend them all, but any one of them would be an excellent choice, including this one, which has already brought me many hours of contented listening."

Wonderful!

J Fetter | 02/21/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"*This is THE Beethoven string quartet set to get.*



Like another reviewer, I also heard about this recording from Prof. Greenberg's Lectures, which were exceptional.



I am just floored every time I listen to these CD's. The sound quality and playing is better then any other recording I've heard in this genre. (Beethoven, or otherwise).



Actually, to be honest, when I'm looking at my concert music collection and looking for the 'Best Sounding' CD to listen to in Hi-Fi, this is probably the first CD('s) I look at.



I was introduced to the ASQ from their recording of Mozart's string quartets dedicated to Haydn, which is as awesome a CD set as this one. (Get both!)



I cannot say enough good things about this set, and I just wish they'd record some Haydn quartets next!"